1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a peripheral device that can be connected to an information processing device, such as a personal computer (PC) and that can read data from and write data to removable media.
2. Description of Related Art
There are available card-type recording media (which will be simply referred to as “media” hereinafter) that are provided with flash memories or the like. These media serve as external memories. Representative examples of the media are: CompactFlash (CF, registered trademark), SmartMedia (SM, registered trademark), Memory Stick (MS, registered trademark), Secure Digital memory card (SD, registered trademark), Microdrive (registered trademark), Multimedia card (registered trademark), XD picture card (registered trademark), Memory Stick Duo (registered trademark), mini-SDs (registered trademark). It is unnecessary to use drive devices for driving these media. These media are therefore used for digital cameras, notebook-type personal computers, and cell phones, and therefore these media should be compact and should have small power consumption.
There are available various types of memory card-reader/writers, which serve as peripheral devices enabling personal computers to read data to and to write data from these media. Representative types of memory card-reader/writers are: a single-slot type; a multi-slot type; and a flash-memory-installed type. The single-slot type memory card-reader/writer is provided with only a single slot to which a medium is inserted. The multi-slot type memory card-reader/writer is provided with a plurality of slots to which a plurality of kinds of media can be inserted. The multi-slot type memory card-reader/writer is therefore capable of reading data from and writing data to the plurality of kinds of media. The flash-memory-installed type memory card-reader/writer is provided with an internal flash memory as well as one or more slots.
The memory card-reader/writer can be connected to a personal computer, for example. In order to enable the personal computer to access a medium inserted in some slot in the memory card-reader/writer, the personal computer has to be installed with a software program (driver software program) for accessing the slot (medium). However, the number of slots accessible from the personal computer is determined dependently on the kind of the operating system (OS) installed in the personal computer.
When the OS installed on the personal computer is a relatively old version OS or a relatively lower rank OS, such as Windows 98SE (registered trademark) or Windows 2000 (registered trademark), the personal computer is installed as standard with a single-reading/writing (single-R/W) driver software that supports the single-slot memory card reader/writer. The single-reading/writing (single-R/W) driver software performs drive allocation for only one slot, and enables the personal computer to read data from and write data to a medium inserted in the one slot.
On the other hand, when the OS installed on the personal computer is a relatively new version OS or a relatively upper rank OS, such as Windows Me (registered trademark) or Windows XP (registered trademark), the personal computer is installed as standard with a multi-reading/writing (multi-R/W) driver software that supports all the single-slot type memory card-reader/writer, the multi-slot type memory card-reader/writer, and the flash-memory-installed type memory card-reader/writer. The multi-reading/writing (multi-R/W) driver software performs drive allocation for a plurality of slots, respectively, and enables the personal computer to read data from and write data to media inserted in the plurality of slots independently from one another. The multi-reading/writing (multi-R/W) driver software performs drive allocation also for an internal flash memory and one or more slots, respectively, and enables the personal computer to read data from and write data to the internal flash memory and one or more media inserted in the one or more slots independently from one another. Hereinafter, the multi-slot type memory card-reader/writer and the flash-memory-installed type memory card-reader/writer will be referred to collectively as “multi-reader/writer”, and the multi-reading/writing (multi-R/W) driver software will be referred to as “multi-support driver” hereinafter.
When the multi-reader/writer is connected to such a personal computer that is installed with the older or lower rank OS, a user has to additionally install a special driver software program on the personal computer in order to enable the personal computer to access each slot in the multi-reader/writer. It is troublesome for the user to install such a special driver software program on the personal computer. When the personal computer is installed with the Windows 2000, if the user does not install such a special driver software program on the personal computer, the personal computer can access only a predetermined single slot on the multi-reader/writer.
Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2002-324040 has proposed a memory card reader/writer that is provided with two slots and that is provided with a priority selecting switch for setting the priority among the two slots. This conventional memory card reader/writer enables a personal computer, connected thereto, to access one slot that is selected as having a higher priority than the other.
When this conventional memory card reader/writer is connected to a USB port of a personal computer, necessary settings are performed automatically by means of a Plug and Play function. At this time, firmware in the conventional memory card reader/writer determines the slot priority based on the priority selecting switch setting, and reports the slot priority to the Operating System (OS) of the personal computer.